In 1580 a small organ with two short manuals was built in Oliva. Nothing is known about the builder of the instrument.
The first organist in Oliva mentioned was Andrzej Syberus. These records date him back to 1595.

Christian Neumann started reconstructing the big organ in Abbey, probably using material left from the two damaged organs in the process.
The instrument was completed in 1604 and the final inspection was done by Cajus Schmiedlein, organist since 1585 of the Anthoni organ at St. Mary's Basilica.

During the Swedish attack on Poland in 1626 the Oliva Abbey was not spared from devastation and both instruments were damaged by the Swedish army.
In 1628 a new big organ was built in Oliva by an unnamed builder.

It is assumed that in 1655, under yet another attack of the Swedish army, Admiral Karl Wrangel stole the small choir organ from Oliva and brought it to Skolkloster, near Stockholm, where the instruments is located today.
However, Swedish analysis are to have shown the organ in Skolkloster was built in Sweden around 1667.

In 1758 Johan Wilhelm Wulff, the grandson of Johann Georg Wulff, came to Oliva and met Jozef Jacek Rybinski, the Abbot of Oliva at that time.
Wulff was commissioned to rebuilt his grandfather's organ from 1680. The young Wulff, 23 at that time, completed his task and enhanced the choir organ from 14 to 18 stops.

Rybinski, apparently satisfied with Wulff's work, ambitious, and with his mind set on the Abbey's possibility to save currency, got into an agreement with the young organ builder.
The Abbey would send Wulff for some years to The Netherlands and Germany, on the convent's expense, to study the great organs that have already been built or were just in the process of construction. Wulff should deepen his knowledge of organ building and refine his skills by learning directly from great organ masters. In return for this study voyage Wulff would join the Cistercian convent in Oliva upon his return and use all his acquired knowledge to build a new great organ for the Abbey to eclipse all other instruments of that time.
It is unknown to which places Wulff travelled during his voyage in the years 1760 – 1762, but it can be assumed that he stopped at various Cistercian abbeys in the regions he was visiting.

The possibilities for Wulff to travel were restricted at that time. Other means of travelling than by sea would have meant he had would need to go through Pomeranian and Brandenburg, which were fought over in the 13-years war at that time.

Because of the danger associated with travelling through these regions it is quite probable that Wulff sailed from Gdansk to Amsterdam from where he travelled through The Netherlands to West- and South Germany.

Jan Janca writes that the organs of Josef Gabler in Schwäbisch Weingarten and Ochsenhausen had an influence on the design of the later Oliva case, as did the two Riepp organs at the Abbey in Ottobeuren which were under construction during the time of Wulff's voyage.

Upon his return to Oliva Wulff did his part to fulfil the agreement with the Abbot and joined the Cistercian convent on 21 January 1763, assuming the name Brother Michael.
The same year he started work on the construction of a new great organ on the west end gallery of the nave. This endeavour should prove a big challenge to Wulff as his task was to build an 83-stop organ on three manuals and pedal into a relatively narrow nave.

Wulff was assisted during the construction of the instrument by approximately 20 – 25 assistants with different specializations, many of whom Wullf first had to train before they could help on the project. Among them were two talented carvers Joseph Gross and Brother Alanus, also known as Martin Trost from Guttstadt, whose monograms sustained on many sculptures on the organ case.

To cope with the difficult spatial conditions Wulff designed an U-shaped case which occupies the entire depth of the west gallery.
The north and south wall of the gallery form two case facades opposing each other. Running into the west wall these two facades turn in the u-shape into the west wall facade. The west wall itself has an oval-shaped window left free in the middle above which the west facade rises till under the vault. The west facade is the only one which can be seen in its full width from the nave. Neither the north nor the south facade can be entirely seen from any point of the nave. However these two sides are designed in waving style, creating the impression that there are three towers of pipes leading from the outside to the west wall window. On the front each side ends with a pedal tower, virtually hanging partly outsides the gallery.

The case is richly decorated with rococo carvings. On top of the case but also on top of the separate pipe fields angel figures are located. They hold instruments in their hands: trumpets, trombones, and bells. Wulff added a mechanical drive to these figure to make them move. By pulling the proper stops from the console the angels ring their bells or move their instruments as if they were playing on them.
The top of the west facade is crowned with a big sun. Along with the stars located on several points of the case this sun starts rotating when the associated stop is drawn on the console.
In total the case is decorated with about 40 figures of which 29 are movable.

At the west end wall, above the window Wullf located the Kronpositiv (crown positive) of manual III. The Oberwerk from manual II was located on the southern wall facade, while manual I with the Hauptwerk (great organ) was placed on the opposite, at the northern wall facade. The Pedal was divided into tow parts, each standing at the very front of the southern- and northern wall facades.
The console was separated from the case and located in the middle of the choir gallery. It had three manuals, each with 54 keys, and a pedal board. There were 100 stop knobs of which 83 were for speaking stops and 17 for playing aids.
It was the fist free standing console built in the north-east Europe. It is assumed that the stop draw knobs had to be pulled out as much as 20 centimetres due to the long and complicated tracker action installed in the instrument.

Fourteen reservoirs were located in a small room above the ceiling of the northern aisle from which they were connected to the organ. It took up to seven calcants to operate them.

In 1772 Poland was separated and Oliva annexed by the Prussians. Most of the estates of the Abbey were confiscated and the Cistercians were paid compensation, amounting only to little percentage of the objects real values. Abbot Rybinski tried his utter most to complete the construction of the organ and started selling of valuable items from the Abbeys treasury to finance the construction. However, original plans to gild the organ case had to be dropped due to shortage in financial means.

Along with the construction of the organ Brother Michael completed a theology study and was promoted to Father Michael in 1776.
In 1782 Abbot Rybinski died and the Abbey was hence forth under the commission of the catholic branch of the Prussian ruling house.

An unexplained event in 1788 stopped all work on the not yet completed organ. Some sources erroneously reported about the death of Father Michael.

The new Abbot of Oliva, Karl von Hohenzollern, demanded the console to be moved from the centre to the northern par of the gallery. The reason was that the centrally place console took away space required for musicians for the performances of great musical masses.
Furthermore a transposition device was requested.

One assumption is that Father Michael suffered a stroke after hearing which changes the Abbot request to an instrument on which he spend 25 years of his life and which could partially be used already in 1788. Unable to work on and supervise the completition on his organ, all work stopped until his condition improved or a new organ builder was found to finish the work.
Another possibility could be that Wulff refused to make these late changes to his life's work and fell in disregard with the Abbot, who had him removed from work and supervision on the construction of the organ.

In 1790 reputed and by then already aged organ builder Rudolf Friedrich Dalitz was contracted to finish the construction of the organ and perform the requested modifications.
Dalitz moved the console from the centre of the gallery to the northern facades and changed it into an integral console (integrated into the case). Furthermore he moved the second manual to the northern facades while the pedal stops from the northern facades were moved to the southern facades (where the second manual was initially located) to unite all pedal stops on one side of the organ behind the organist.
This extensive work has been finished in 1793, however the transposition device the Abbot asked for was not installed either by Dalitz.

Dalitz's modifications have cost the Abbey 8500 guilders, compared to 7982 guilders which the entire organ construction form 1763 – 1788 had cost.
The organ possessed 83 stops and a total of 5100 pipes. At that time it was the biggest organ in Europe, probably even in the whole world.

Specification of the Oliwa organ after completition by Dalitz in 1793

Manual I (Hauptwerk)

Manual II (Oberwerk)

Contraprincipal

32'

from H

Principal

16'

front from c0

Principal

16'

front

Flaut major

16'

C-H=Principal

Quintatön

16'

Rohrflöt

8'

Gedackt Pommer

16'

Quintatön

8'

Principalquinte

10 2/3'

Viola da Gamba

8'

Flaut major

8'

Viola d'amour

8'

Meerflaut

8'

Flaut amabile

4'

Violoncello

8'

Meerflaut

4'

Salicional

8'

Violoncello

4'

Quinte

5 1/3'

Quinte

2 2/3'

Octave

4'

Octave

2'

Flaut

4'

Flaut traverso

2'

Waldflöte

4'

Mixtur VII

2'

Salicional

4'

Cornet IV

Nassatflöte

2 2/3'

Dulcian

16'

Mixtur IX

4'

Vox humana

8'

Scharff III

2'

Fagott

16'

Trompete

8'

Manual III (Kronwerk)

Pedal I

Bordun

16'

Principal

32'

front from c0

Principal

8'

Vilone

32'

Flaut major

8'

Viola da Gamba

32'

Principal

4'

Fugara

32'

Principal clairon

4'

Subbaß

16'

Flauto traverso

4'

Quintatön

16'

Principalquinte

2 2/3'

Viola da Gamba

16'

Octave

2'

Hohlflöte

8'

Waldflöte

2'

Quintatön

8'

Sedezquinte

1 1/3'

Gedackt Pommer

4'

Flageolet

1'

Quintatön

4'

Mixtur VI

4'

Bauernflöte

2'

Cymbel IV

Waldecho

1'

Oboe

8'

Scharf VI

Regal

4'

Posaune

32'

Playing aids

Pedal II

5 main vents

Principal

16'

front

1 trumpet angel stop

Principal contra

16'

1 bell angel stop

Quinte

10 2/3'

2 suns with cimbels

Octave

8'

2 Cimbelsterne

Rohrflöte

8'

Timpani in pedal

Violoncello

8'

Calcant bell

Salicional

8'

Evacuant

Principalquinte

5 1/3'

Octave

4'

Waldflöte

4'

Theorbe

4'

Quinte

2 2/3'

Mixtur VIII

4'

Posaune

16'

Trompete

8'

Clairon

4'

Nachtschall

2'

The Principal 16' and Flaut major 16' from the second manual had a common, stopped bottom octave. The same is assumed for the Principal 32' and Violone 32' as well as the Gamba 32' and Fugara 32' from the pedal section. Due to lack of space it is also possible that many eight-feet stops were merged together in their bottom octaves.

The great organ was far from perfect. It was not possible to play more than one 32 feet stop in the pedal, otherwise the wind supply was not sufficient. The same problem was to be found in the first and second manual. Playing the organ with a “Tutti” was not possible.

In 1831 the Prussian authorities have executed an abolishment order issued in 1820 and the Cistercian Abbey at Oliva was dissolved. The estate became property of the catholic parish in Oliva.
In 1835 the piano builder Jakob Bernhard Wiszniewski from Gdańsk carried out repair works on the great organ. The extent and details of the work are unknown.

Ever since the Prussian annexation of Oliva in 1772 the Abbey has gradually impoverished. The abbey, and from 1831 onwards the catholic parish, lacked the financial means for the up keeping of the organ and so the instrument has decayed substantially since its construction.
Nine out of the fourteen reservoir blowers have been so severely damaged that they had to be put out of use. People who heard the organ play described its sound as faint and weak.

In the romantic era the organ eve attracted some legends and rumours. Legend had it that if played with all stops engaged doors and windows in the church would break, thew walls would crack and the vaults collapse.
Some rumoured that the bad sound of the instrument was the revenge of a monk who, angry about an unjustified disciplinary measure, closed a secret valve only know to him to take revenge on the Abbot.
Another legend said that the action got so heavy with all stops engaged that nobody was able to play it at all.
In 1858 the organist of Oliva asked the Prussian authorities for the financial means to carry out a major overhaul of the organ.
The state approved the request in 1863 and the organ building company of Friedrich W. Kaltschmidt from Szczecin was contracted for the work.

Kaltschmidt performed a complete reconstruction of the entire action. Approximately 45 stops were re-used and some 30 were renewed. The rest of the stops Kaltschmidt made himself from scratch.
All wind chest were completely renewed. Kaltschmidt built his cone chests in a way that would allow him to use most of the case pipes again.
Manual three was enclosed into a swell box which required the muting of the front pipes of the positive above the stained glass window.
All eleven wind chests and the console were placed on the northern side of the instrument, while all eight wind chests from the pedal division were mounted in the southern case.

Specification of the Oliwa organ after the Kaltschmidt rebuildung in 1865

The Berlin based company of brothers Oswald and Paul Dinse came to Oliva in 1902 and carried out a number of up keeping works. They renewed the 16' and 8' reeds on manual one, 8' reeds on manual three, and 16' and 8' reeds in the pedal.

Furthermore the choir organ, successfully restored by Carl Schuricht in 1874, was renovated and equipped with an pneumatic action. The instrument had 14 stops on two manuals and pedal.

At the outbreak of world war one, the Prussian state wanted to confiscate the zinc pipes of the both organs to melt them and use the metal for military purposes. However, the parish of Oliva heavily objected and the organ remained untouched until 1917, when Prussian military dismantled the zinc pipes from the choir organ.

Since 1914 the company of Josef Goebel from Gdańsk was taking care of Oliva organs and has developed plans for a thorough restoration. However, due to lack of funds, it was not before 1934 that the restoration work could be done.

Goebel has replaced everything apart from the case and approximately half of the existing pipe work. The organ received an electro-pneumatic action and a brand new stand alone console. Organ stops were grouped into the six sections: Hauptwerk, Positiv, Brustwerk, Oberwerk, Echowerk and Pedal. However, the console only had four manuals and thus Positiv and Brustwerk were made playable from the same manual, making the division of stops in this matter more or less useless.
Apparently Goebel was faced with a lack of space in the organ case and could not equip all stops fully with pipes. To simulate the tone of non existing pipes, a multiplex system has been installed in places, among others one affecting Principal 8' and Oktave 4' in the Hauptwerk.
The way such a system could work is as follows:
When playing c1 and c2 with the Principal 8' and Oktave 4', a total of four pipes should sound: c1 and c2 of Principal 8' as well as c2 and c3 of Oktave 4'. Due to missing pipes at Oliva, the organ in fact just played c1 and c2 from Principal 8' and c3 from Oktave 4'. To simulate the missing c2 from Okatve 4' the multiplex system would engage the 2' and a 1 1/3' stop on c1 which combined would sound like a 4' stop on c1 (playing c2).

Goebel furthermore installed new pipes into the choir organ, changed the action to electro-pneumatic as well, and connected the choir organ to the main console by means of an 65 meters long electric cable. Both instruments were re-voiced according to the equal-tempered system ratified in 1899 in Vienna.

After completition of the work, the Oliva organ counted 6800 pipes in 101 stops, including the 14 stops from the choir organ. It was the biggest organ in the Baltic area until 1938, when Kemper's great organ at St. Mary's Basilica took that status with its 120 stop.

The Oliva organ has survived the World War II quite well. The original Wulff case pipes have been evacuated, the stained glass window has been bricked up and has thus prevented further damage to the organ under artillery fire.
The red army has vandalized the console and the new Cymbels were stolen from the positive, as were parts of the Mixture and the Regal from the Brustwerk.

Friedrich Schwarz, the former assistant of Josef Goebel installed the evacuated case pipes in 1945 and brought into a condition that it could be used for Christmas the same year.

A major overhaul of the instrument was done in the years 1966 – 1968 by the company of Zygmund Kamiński from Warsaw. Kamiński installed a new console with five manuals and six adjustable combinations. The organ was divided into six sections, one of which was a newly built positive with nine stops placed in the third arc in west of the nave.
Kamiński removed the multiplex system and supplemented the incomplete stops. He also changed some of the mixtures.
The choir organ was connected to the main console again.

The organ had 110 sounding stops of which 87 were in the nave organ, 14 in the choir organ in the transept, and 9 in the newly built positive. All stops together amounted to 7876 pipes.

Specification of the Oliwa organ after Kamiński's reconstruction in 1968

In the year 2000 the company Mollin began working on a structural overhaul of the case pipes. All 445 case pipes were cleaned and checked for damage. Structural damage caused by corrosion has occurred on approximately 15 pipes. These pipes were submitted for a metallurgical examination and a cast has been made of every single one. This way “spare parts” could be made and soldered in to replace the damaged places.

The metallurgical analysis revealed that the pipes of Johann Wulff were made out of 95% zinc. Furthermore something, most probably gold, was added to purify the pipes during construction.
In this way the company Mollin was able to preserve all case pipes. Alone the Octavbas stop in the Pedal has sustained so much damage that it has lost its tonal strength.
The decision on what to do about that particular stop is difficult as replacing the pipes would mean replacing original case pipes from the period 1763 – 1788, which would also change the optical appearance of the organ since the old pipes have received a significant colour through oxidation. On the other, a stop which cannot really be used for playing music is not very useful in an organ.

In 2003 a new console was installed, replacing the one Kamiński made in 1966/1968. The new console also features five manuals but, in contrast to the previous console, allows for 64 freely programmable combinations by means of an 8x8 adjustable combinations (Ger.: Setzter) device.

Also in 2003 the choir organ was rebuilt by installing an instrument built by the company of Emanuel Kemper from Lübeck. The organ features three more stops than before and has some stop list changes compared to its predecessor.
As of May 2004, the pipes of Regal 8' were not yet installed though the wind chest has already been prepared for this purpose.

Specification of the Kemper choir organ installed in 2003/2004

Hauptwerk (Manuał I)

Brustwerk (Manuał III)

Pedał

Pryncypał

8'

Copula

8'

Subbas

16'

Flet major

8'

Flet minor

4'

Pommer

8'

Oktawa

4'

Pryncypał

2'

Dulcjian

16'

Flet drewniany

4'

Sesquialtera II

I/Ped

Nasard

2 2/3'

Scharff II-IV

II/Ped

Szpicflet

2'

Regał

8'

Mixtura IV-VI

Tremolo II

Trompet

8'

Stella

II/I

Specification of the Kemper choir organ installed in 2003/2004 translated into common names

The structure of the present day great organ in Oliva Cathedral is as follows.
The case with its decorations is still original as made by Johann Wulff and his assistants. The moving figures, suns and stars still work with their original mechanics, dating back to Wulff as well. The case is unique in its shape and is one of the biggest organ cases in the world.

All 445 case pipes are original and date back to the construction of the organ by Wulff in 1763 – 1788. Approximately half of the pipes in the instrument date back to Wulff (1763/1788), Dalitz (1790/1793) and Kaltschmidt (1865). The remaining pipes come from mostly from Goebel (1934/1935), but also from Biernacki (1955) and some very few (added) pipes by Kamiński (1966/1968).

The location of the various organ divisions is as follows:

Kronwerk (Manual V) located on top of the west facade over the stained glass window

Schwellwerk (Manual IV) is located on the north facades.

Brustwerk (Manual III) is located near the front of the instrument behind the case on the north and south fascades.

Hauptwerk (Manual II) resides in and behind the case on the north and south facades as well.

Positiv (Manual I) is located in the third arc in the west of the nave.

The pedal division is located at the very front of the case in the north and south facades (the way it was initially built by Wulff) with its Principal 16' in the case.

The choir organ is located in the southern transept of the cathedral and can be played from the main organ console (mapped to Pedal and manuals IV and V).

An electro-pneumatic action is used in all three instruments. A part of the magnets used in the action still dates back to Goebel's renovation from 1934/1935.